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Vulgar Statistics: Sabres 2010-2011 Season In Review

In the midst of every losing team not named Nashville (and now apparently Detroit) putting forth a far worse second round effort than the Sabres would have, I figured we could look back fondly on some of the intrigues and oddities surrounding the Sabres this season.

Team Win-Loss Records

By Venue

Home – 21-16-4

Away – 22-13-6

By Month

October – 3-7-2

November – 6-6-1

December – 6-5-1

January – 8-3-1

February – 6-4-2

March – 10-4-2

April – 4-0-1

By Division

Atlantic – 8-9-3

Northeast – 15-8-1

Southeast – 10-7-3

West – 10-5-3

By Goaltender

Miller – 34-22-8

Lalime – 0-5-0

Enroth – 9-2-2

In Relation to Special Teams

No PPG scored – 16-19-7

One or more PPG scored – 27-10-3

Perfect PK – 24-12-3

One or more PPG allowed – 19-17-7

One or more PPG scored and perfect PK – 16-4-0

By Shot Totals

Outshooting – 20-19-7

Being Outshot – 22-10-3 (1-0-0 when shots tied)

Under 30 shots taken – 16-7-4

30+ shots taken – 27-22-6

40+ shots taken – 5-7-1

By Game Scenario

Leading after 1 period – 20-6-3

Trailing after 1 period – 11-12-4

Leading after 2 periods – 25-2-3

Trailing after 2 periods – 5-24-1

Scoring first – 25-10-3

Trailing first – 18-19-7

Thomas Vanek and Tyler Myers

When Thomas Vanek scores – 19-4-3 (24-25-7 without)

When Thomas Vanek records a point – 32-10-5 (11-19-5 without)

When Thomas Vanek plays 20+ minutes – 4-3-1

When Tyler Myers Scores – 8-1-1

When Tyler Myers records a point – 19-6-4

When Tyler Myers plays 23+ minutes – 15-12-7

Sabres NHL Rankings:

(We’ll skip the mundane and easy stuff that everyone knows like goals and special teams.)

Shots – 4th (32.8 per game)

Shots Allowed – 17th (30.7 per game)

Faceoffs – 27th (47.7%)

PIM – 14th least (11.7 PIM per game)

PP Time – 22nd most (453:22; 5.5 minutes per game)

Hits – 30th (1,505)

Blocked Shots – 16th (1,168)

Giveaways – 18th least (693)

Takeaways – 19th most (564)

Team Leaders

(We’ll skip the easy stuff like goals and points that everyone already knows.)

*Shootout winning goals count as goals, all other shootout goals in shootout wins count as assists

Game Winning Points (Defensemen)*

Tyler Myers – 8 (5 goals, 3 assists)

Jordan Leopold – 4 (1 goal, 3 assists)

Andrej Sekera – 4 (0 goals, 4 assists)

Game Winning Points in One Goal Wins*

Thomas Vanek – 11 (3 goals, 8 assists)

Drew Stafford – 6 (4 goals, 2 assists)

Tyler Ennis – 5 (2 goals, 3 assists)

Game Winning Points in One or Two Goal Wins*

Thomas Vanek – 15 (5 goals, 10 assists)

Nathan Gerbe – 10 (3 goals, 7 assists)

Drew Stafford – 9 (4 goals, 5 assists)

Points in Games Decided by One Goal, Win or Loss (Forwards)**

Thomas Vanek – 40 (12 goals, 28 assists)

Drew Stafford – 32 (19 goals, 13 assists)

Jason Pominville – 23 (11 goals, 12 assists)

Tyler Ennis – 23 (9 goals, 14 assists)

**Shootout goals not considered

Points in Games Decided by One Goal, Win or Loss (Defensemen)**

Tyler Myers – 19 (5 goals, 14 assists)

Jordan Leopold – 17 (6 goals, 11 assists)

Steve Montador – 16 (4 goals, 12 assists)

Third Period Goals

Thomas Vanek – 12

Drew Stafford – 10

Jochen Hecht – 7

First Goal of the Game

Jason Pominville – 5

Drew Stafford – 4

Nathan Gerbe – 4

Paul Gaustad – 4

Game Tying Goals (Goals scored at any time when the Sabres were down one)

Drew Stafford – 8

Jason Pominville – 5

Thomas Vanek – 4

Tyler Ennis – 4

Jochen Hecht – 4

Nathan Gerbe – 4

Go Ahead Goals (Goals scored at any time that broke a tie game)

Thomas Vanek – 11

Drew Stafford – 11

Jason Pominville – 8

Stars Awarded

Ryan Miller – 22

Thomas Vanek – 16

Drew Stafford – 13

Shots on Goal

Thomas Vanek – 238

Jason Pominville – 215

Tyler Ennis – 210

Shooting Percentage

Drew Stafford – 17.3%

Thomas Vanek – 13.4%

Derek Roy – 11.2%

Time On Ice Per Game (Defensemen)

Jordan Leopold – 23:19

Tyler Myers – 22:27

Andrej Sekera – 21:05

Time On Ice Per Game (Forwards)

Derek Roy – 19:32

Jason Pominville – 18:09

Thomas Vanek – 17:21

Power Play Time On Ice Per Game (Forwards)

Derek Roy – 3:43

Thomas Vanek – 3:15

Drew Stafford – 2:57

Power Play Time On Ice Per Game (Defensemen)

Tyler Myers – 2:47

Jordan Leopold – 2:44

Andrej Sekera – 2:05

Shorthanded Time On Ice Per Game (Forwards)

Mike Grier – 2:43

Paul Gaustad – 2:01

Jason Pominville – 1:57

Shorthanded Time On Ice Per Game (Defensemen)

Tyler Myers – 2:41

Jordan Leopold – 2:34

Steve Montador – 2:04

PIM

Cody McCormick – 142

Paul Gaustad – 101

Steve Montador – 83

Hits

Mike Weber – 158

Paul Gaustad – 128

Patrick Kaleta – 126 (51 games played)

Blocked Shots

Steve Montador – 138

Jordan Leopold – 123

Mike Weber – 99

Giveaways

Tyler Myers – 67

Steve Montador – 61

Andrej Sekera – 51

Takeaways

Tyler Ennis – 45

Thomas Vanek – 43

Jason Pominville – 43

Final Thoughts:

My big bone to pick here came on something you’ve seen me rail on via Twitter. And while fellow BBG author Tom might remind me it doesn’t matter, it irks me nonetheless. The three stars. There is no better evidence that sportwriters are just as biased (and at times bad) in analyzing the game tas the fans, despite what they might tell you about their fancy degrees and how long they’ve had them. I thought that there were entire weeks where Andrej Sekera was the Sabres best defenseman by a wide margin and he wound up getting recognized for two measley stars. Heck, he was named one of the NHL’s stars of the week and I don’t think he got an actual star within a game that week.

That having been said, there is probably a bit too much to go into great depth here. I think the team’s biggest issues shown here are team defense and a lack of faceoff skill outside of Paul Gaustad. (I know center depth is a bigger issue, but that’s more visible from an analytical standpoint than a statistical one.) What makes things worse is that one of those (winning faceoffs) can help the other, and can trickle into other areas of the game. They’re especially important when you’ve got a bunch of smaller players that might not be as good as recovering a lost faceoff. A good faceoff team takes shots away from their opponent, gives their forwards shots, and maximizes and minimizes power play offensive and penalty kill defensive zone times respectively. Simply put, we can’t afford to suck at it if we want to win a cup.

And then there’s physicality. I know hits don’t win games, but they’re too useful for it to sit well that the team was dead last in the league in them. (Especially when you want to send a message that there will be consequences if your smaller guys are messed with.) I thought Andrej Sekera did a good job putting a shoulder into opposing forwards early in the season (which is part of what made him so effective) and then backed off later in the year. Conversely, Myers’s physicality really came on as the season progressed. I think it’s good to have a mix on defense of wrecking crew and stick surgeons, but we seem to have too much of the latter and not enough of the former. I think the team would do well to add a top four guy that can knock people around to join Weber and Myers in complimenting Leopold, Sekera/Butler, and possibly Gragnani.

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